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Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Government is looking forward to scaling up HIV programmes targeting adolescents, young girls and older men amid revelations that there could be an increased cross generational sex taking place among these groups. Speaking at the United States Dreams first anniversary in Harare yesterday, Ministry of Health and Child Care HIV prevention coordinator Mrs Getrude Ncube said the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)’s Dreams initiative for young girls was bearing fruits.

Mrs Ncube said realising the enormous benefits of the PEPFAR initiative on young girls, Government was looking at ways of adopting and scaling up the approach. “We are taking Dreams as an approach, a way of doing things. We would want to see Government taking a more proactive role in these initiatives,” said Mrs Ncube.

She, however, said there would be need for more resources to be able to fully implement the project throughout the country. “We will need your support, we will need those partnerships and we will need more resources as we seek to close the tap of new infections in young girls and older men,” said Mrs Ncube.

New data from the Zimbabwe Population Based HIV Impact Assessment Survey (ZIMPHIA) released last week showed that young girls between the ages of 20 and 24 years were thrice more likely to acquire HIV with a prevalence rate of about 8,5 percent against 2,7 percent prevalence among their male counterparts.

The statistics further showed that HIV prevalence was higher in older men than older women between the ages of 50 and 59 years accounting for about 30 percent.

“What these statistics are telling us is that there could be a lot of cross generational sex taking place between the 20-year-olds and the 50-year-olds and our programming should not leave these men out,” said National Aids Council executive director Dr Tapuwa Magure.

He said the Dreams project was already addressing gaps in the young girls exposing them to HIV acquisition and more still needed to be done for all the young girls in the country and the older men as well.

US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Harry Thomas said evidence showed that empowering young women to protect their health was crucial in achieving an AIDS free generation. He said the Dreams initiative was meant to address exactly that in six selected districts with high HIV burden among young women.

These districts are Mazowe, Gweru, Makoni, Mutare, Chipinge and Bulawayo. “The Dreams initiative is transforming the lives of young women and girls and giving them hope for a brighter future. We are confident that the Dreams initiative will continue to accelerate efforts to achieve an Aids free generation,” he said.

Dreams is an ambitious $385 million two-year partnership launched in Zimbabwe last year with the intention to reduce HIV infections among young women in 10 sub-Saharan countries by 40 percent by 2017.

Its goal is to help girls develop into determined, resilient, empowered, Aids-free, mentored and safe women. To date, about 385 000 individuals accessed HIV prevention and risk reduction information, assessment and counselling under Dreams.

More than 20 000 highly vulnerable girls received support such as assistance to get back to school, life building skills, vocational training and assistance to start up small businesses. In addition, 110 000 young women and girls received HIV testing services.